Today we mark the birthday of Paul Simonon — he’s turning 55 — with this performance of The Clash bassist’s signature tune, ‘The Guns of Brixton,’ filmed April 25, 1980, for the band’s second-ever U.S. television appearance on ABC’s late-night comedy show ‘Fridays.’

The Pixies today canceled their first-ever concert in Israel this week, and while the band didn’t give a specific reason, the move follows last week’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and similar cancellations by Gorillaz and Elvis Costello.

The seminal debut from Mick Jones’ post-Clash outfit Big Audio Dynamite is set to be reissued tomorrow in an expanded 2CD package — and to mark the occasion, Slicing Up Eyeballs spoke to drummer Greg Roberts about B.A.D.’s origins, the recording of ‘This Is Big Audio Dynamite’ and his current group, Dreadzone.

Fans who can’t be in Indio, Calif., this weekend — or bands trapped in the U.K. by an angry volcano — can watch much of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival via free streaming webcasts on Facebook, MySpace and Verizon V Cast Video on Demand (for those with Verizon phones) beginning tonight.

With a new reissue due this month, the two key figures in Big Audio Dynamite — former Clash member Mick Jones and DJ/filmmaker Don Letts — have broached the idea of reuniting the ’80s cross-genre act, Letts tells Billboard.

This week’s new releases include the Gorillaz’s ‘Plastic Beach’ — featuring a reunion of The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon — plus reissues of Spandau Ballet’s first two albums and a new early-’80s best-of from The Fleshtones.

It’s not much, but this 30-second promo for the Gorillaz’s forthcoming Plastic Beach is kind of exciting: It offers an all-too-fleeting glimpse of The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon recording together for the first time since 1982’s Combat Rock.